Simmons 1

Ryan Simmons
Emily Jarema
English 111: Synthesis 2
March 24, 2014
Students and Writing
Students are in the college setting are given expectations and are required to meet those
expectations. Most teachers are very strict on those expectations and in force them; some harder
than others. There have been many ideas brought to our attention when discussing if college
students are prepared for college level classes within the last couple years. Students in college
are in classes that require writing at least a properly written paper and some or most of the
students dont actually know how to do so. There is a big difference when it comes to the
expectations of what high school classes expect a student to do when writing, compared to a
college professor expects a student to do.

Revision is a very important thing to do while writing a paper for a class that requires
well written papers, like most of all college classes expect. Revising makes or breaks some
students papers. Some chose to revise papers and might do better because they end up finding
mistakes. However, others might chose not to revise but to turn in their first and only draft and
hope and pray for the best outcome. Anne Lamott discusses in her article called Shitty Rough
Drafts about how many great writers write more than one draft when trying to write a good
paper.
Simmons 2

Now, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first
drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and
terrific third drafts (325).
The idea of writing more than one rough draft is the better idea. Writers writing more
than one draft, see their mistakes and are able to fix them. People that write only one draft might
think that the work theyre doing is A+ work but if they would take a second to rethink and
analyze their paper, writers wouldve realized their mistakes. Students writing papers think that
their first draft papers are doing the job that the teacher is asking them to perform. What the
students dont realize is that if they would go back and reread what they have written, that their
papers might need maybe even just one more go around. If students would maybe go back and
read their papers maybe days later, they might see new ideas or different ways to do things and
ways to make their papers better. Revising your paper can lead to better looking and sounding
papers that might get you that A in the class that you, as a student, need it in.
Other authors agree with Lamott on the subject that students need to do more than one
rough draft. Jennifer Lee agrees by saying that students need the skill of revision because of the
fact that students in the new day and age are using texting language in their papers.The article
written by Jennifer Lee, called I Think, Therefore IM she explains how students in the
classroom, college or even high school or even in middle school, are using the language of
text. The students are using phrases such as; txt, ppl, brb, lol and exedra. In turn, those papers
are being turned into the students teachers and the teachers are seeing this more and more and
are wondering why students are turning in, what they call garbage, for a paper. Students are
losing points because they're using this text language and not revising their drafts and not making
more than one rough draft. Students at the college level will not have their hand held and told
Simmons 3

that they are making these mistakes. High school students are using the texting language and this
habit is eventually transferring into college, making for extremely bad habits such as
abbreviating words, shortening up sentences with using those abbreviations, making papers
shorter and less quality.
Kids should know the difference, said Ms. Harding, who decided to address this issue
head-on this year. They should know where to draw the line between formal writing and
conversational writing (395).
Technology is taking over and both students teachers know that. Teachers are expecting that
even know that might be, students need to know the difference in the time to use texting
language and the time to get to work and write a good paper. When talking about the difference
between using formal and informal writing, students need to learn how separate the two
differences, which involves the learning process. Informal writing being the type of writing that
someone might use when say a person might be texting another person. Formal, being when a
student or even a teacher, or anyone for instance is writing a paper, article, or an essay to be later
looked at and maybe even printed into say the daily news or given to a teacher for example,
which is mostly the expected version of writing in the everyday setting. Teachers are sick of
seeing students turn in informal writings. This brings back the topic of revision. Students need to
learn how to go back in their papers and revise them properly, maybe being that they either fix a
little or a lot of errors.
Students often make mistakes when writing, maybe because they havent been taught
correctly, they never learned or they just have made simple mistakes. Every student should start
with the basics to writing. Such as correctly spelling words, using the right grammar for the
Simmons 4

right topics or ideas, but what Mike Rose stresses in his article called, Politics of
Remediation, is not only using those basic measures but to know how to cite your sources. Mike
believes that citing your sources is a very big deal. Rose also believes that its an issue that most
students dont know how to correctly cite their sources. Mike uses past students in his article to
give prime examples of his point that hes trying to get across. The one student that Rose uses is
Marita. Marita had turned in her paper to her college counselor and in the writing the counselor
says It was clear by the third sentence that the writing was not all hers (2). Marita had an idea
of what she was supposed to be doing, she knew that she had to cite her sources but didnt know
for sure on how to do so.
She wanted to do well on the assignment, so she went to the little library by her house
and looked in the encyclopedia. She found an entry on creativity and used some selections from
it that had to do with mathematicians and scientists. On the bottom of the last page of her paper,
she had listed the encyclopedia and her English composition textbook as her references. What
had she done wrong? Theyre saying I cheated. I didnt cheat. She paused and thought.
Youre supposed to use other people, and i did, and i put the name of the book i used on the
back of the paper (2).
Marita had thought that since she had done the correct things, while citing her sources. What
Marita didnt know is that when citing sources, you have to follow a certain order and put certain
things down from the book, not just the name of the title.
College students often have a problem with their writing, for sometimes many reasons.
Some are procrastination and some maybe just because the student has a hard time writing. There
are many different ideas behind the reasoning of why students have a hard time writing.
Simmons 5

However, when talking about students having a hard time writing, the idea of deadlines and
pressure may come to mind. Some people or students may sometimes crumble under the idea of
pressure. Teachers giving deadlines to students may cause that person to automatically give up
and call it quits. This idea might lead to the idea of maybe referring back to Lamotts article of
Shitty Rough Drafts. These students that are possibly pressured, may come to the thought that,
oh maybe if I just write something really quick and get it done, Ill feel better and not so
pressured. This concept sooner or later leading to not so good of grades being that these students
arent really revising their papers, their writing them as soon as possible and turning them in. In
Paulo Frieres article, Banking Concept he talks about how students sit in class and only let the
information the students get, go in one ear and out of the other. With Frieres concept, these
students that are just sitting in class listening or in other words from Friere, the teacher talks and
the students listen-meekly (241). This quote meaning that students are coming to their classes
and just going through the process, such as going to class and listening to the teacher teach and
not taking in any information.
Teachers in college are expecting more than most students are giving out. Students need
to and are realizing more now that they need to start fixing their writings. High school students
coming into college need to realize that their writings need to be more educated as in they need
more detail and higher vocabulary. Writing has always seemed to be an issue with students.
Whether the student has been mistaught or has never been taught, there are always issues that
can be solved.